Tech CEO in racist restaurant rant

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/07/08/tech-ceo-in-racist-restaurant.html

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is it me or does he have the slightest of accents…aussie? brit?

Kind of some irony there.

Edit: YES! he is British born. So you are a Brit, living/working in the US and complaining about someone else needing to leave this country? the irony…she burns.

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“Gets fired”
“Gets Golden Handshake”
---- media storm dies down ----
“Walks into new job”

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Seems to be a common theme at the moment…

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Too bad he’s the CEO. He should be fired.

I’m glad the staff kicked him out.

No, the words you are looking for are “I lost control and showed my racist rotten soul for all to see.”

And no, don’t “reflect on” your actions. Donate a significant chunk of your networth to anti-racist organizations, preferably the choice of the Chan’s if they feel like speaking to your attorney. Go with the ACLU if you’re too lazy to designate some assistant to do research. Then hire a good therapist and get some congitive therapy to directly address your racism. Finally, hire a reputable firm to do a comprehensive study of the climate at your company and impliment every single recommendation.
Don’t relfect. Own your personal racism, start changing yourself, and use your money to tackle at least a little of the systemic stuff.
But of course he won’t. He’s a racist who only apologized bc some brave woman recorded his actions and put them on line.

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Accidental truths?

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At this point I can truly say I’m shocked at how pervasive and deeply felt all this racism is, and at who has these feelings. Why in the world would this guy ever develop such stupid ideas? Why would he even need to? Why even bother burning the calories needed to care about these things? He’s an affluent white dude in the US. No one and nothing holds him back from anything he wants. And still he took the trouble to conjure up this BS.

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In other words, I have to reflect on how to better hide my true feelings when someone might be recording me.

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Telling use of neutral language there. Does he honestly think that inequality spontaneously erupts out of nowhere or is he just not willing to spend the time thinking about his role in it and how to change?

I think we all know which option is true…

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Someone want to tell me again how Tech CEOs are “teh smartz” and deserve those millions of dollars?

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“ In July 2016, Lofthouse was found guilty of vandalism and sentenced to two days in prison, three years probation and 80 hours of community service. As a result of the case, Lofthouse also had a restraining order placed upon him. Lofthouse had also been facing charges of domestic battery and the destruction of telephone lines. Those charges were dismissed.”

Doesn’t sound like the kind of guy who should get a green card.

Send him back.

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This was clearly a moment where I lost control

Yes, lets apologize because you said out loud what you were thinking. To me this just shows who he truly is on the inside and what he thinks of others. Perhaps this guy will learn a lesson and change for the better, but that’s on him and i won’t hold my breath for him or pity him. Now piss off.

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Ok, but can the plane make an unscheduled stop in the Bermuda Triangle?

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Want more irony?

His sister-in-law is Asian…

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For most people “losing control” in a restaurant means going for that chocolate mousse dessert even though you previously told yourself you wouldn’t.

If you don’t have a deep-rooted hatred for people of other racial/ethnic backgrounds then you don’t need to maintain “control” just to avoid screaming racist rants.

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It’s an inherent in-group/out-group response that is part of our mental toolkit from birth. Because we are human, we think that way. Some cultures are better at overcoming this than others, but vestiges of it remain embedded in virtually every aspect of the cultures that create how we think.

That is why civilized society has to actively teach children AND adults that this is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. Your children will naturally make these mistakes and it is up to you to address it - hard and fast - so there is no question in their minds that this is NOT how civilized people behave. Now some parents are better than others, and then you have the asshole parents that actively encourage it.

When Grandpa or Uncle calls someone a n****r - you HAVE TO do the unpleasant task of correcting him in front of the kids. I had a father-in-law and a couple brother-in-laws that were this way and we were very clear that if they talked this way - we were leaving. But those uncle’s kids are going to be raised as assholes, to the core.

This will NOT go away, we have to make it go away. And that job will likely NEVER end.

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The deep rooted shame of failing upwards is powerful. They know they’re expendable and didn’t do a damn thing to earn their job, the degree that got them there or the situation they were born into. So they find little salves to soothe the reality they know exists deep down. It can’t come from recognizing privilege and working to heal their hatred, because that would be a slippery slope to acknowledging how useless they are.

One of my favorite recent quotes:

“He’s not a fucking tech genius, he’s an entrepreneur.”

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I’m not shocked. White supremacy is baked right into US culture. People who especially buy into it just feel more emboldened than ever these days to express it by Trump.

As directly exemplified by this guy’s reference to Trump, as if Trump is some sort of white supremacist superhero, who’s going to burst into Hulk mode any day now and smash all of those nasty, inferior dark people who’ve been causing so many problems for the real (white) people.

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Triangle, Somalia, Mordor - where ever.

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They aren’t and they don’t.

My wife went to a friend’s house who is a tech CEO and was astounded at how lavish his home was because his company doesn’t generate much revenue and are always on the brink of failure. I told her that the very first thing a startup CEO does is secure a lavish salary for themselves while offshoring as much of the hard tech and labor as possible. Grifters, the lot of them.

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